


gagu ka means i love you in filipino

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, THE original characters are lance's family dw, filipino! lance bc i have no life, lance is an avid el nolibusterismo fan and nicknames his friends from characters there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7427716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was the moment of truth, and Lance can’t help but be on the edge of his metaphorical seat to see what Keith had to say about his cooking and when Keith’s face brightened up after tasting the sauce, Lance can’t quite help but relax if only a little bit. It was always good to see other people’s face brighten up as it often reminded him of Claire after a long college year and would it just be lance when he thinks that Keith looks cute with that look? (well, lance kind of already knew the other was kind of cute)</p><p>“It’s—it’s good.” Keith said, putting the spoon on the counter. “It’s really really good. Holy shit.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i love filipino hcs and i love writing filipino lance. do Not Judge thank u.. honestly indulgent af...... thats why current trends are mixed in despite voltron being set in the future BUT LET ME DREAM!!!!!! (if yr confused... please do ask! i'll try and explain to the best of my abilities!
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](http://quietdays.tumblr.com/post/147094661530/title-gagu-ka-means-i-love-you-in-filipino)  
> ALSO, shameless plug but if u a filipino voltron fan and want to meet other filipino vld fans there's now a facebook group! [clicky here!](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1625729827740977/)  
> 

There were a lot of things that Lance missed from earth.

Don’t get him wrong! It was awesome to fly in space, it was _awesome_ to be a paladin and it was awesome to be a defender of the universe and save _so many_ people (aliens--?). It was—it was the life that Lance may have dreamt of and perhaps thought about when he was young.

Space was awesome, Lance admits, but he was always a momma’s boy.

(he remembers the warm and loud laugh of her mother as she shooed lance’s father away from the kitchen. it was christmas and his mother was cooking her famous sweet spaghetti. they’re just about to attend the midnight mass but that lance can only think about would be the noche buena afterwards. honey-glazed ham and bright red queso de bola that somehow reminds lance of giant apples instead of cheese, sweet fruit salad that has ripe mangoes sent to them by one of lance’s grandfathers. there’d be tsokolate-eh for the kids and kids-at-heart; if anyone notices that one of their rude as hell relatives would be given tsokolate-ah then no one speaks about it but you could always hear the faint giggling of mary and matthew.

the morning after would be the bomb too—crisp money bills to be given to him by his lolas and lolos and ninongs and ninangs. perhaps his sister would scrunch her nose since their grandparents would no doubt refer to her as ‘maria’ and not ‘mary”. lance would laugh at her and and she’d stick out her tongue at him and even though she’d would no doubt get more money than him—he’s quite thankful for his name not having any equivalent in Filipino. afterwards, they’d sing to entertain their relatives which lance and mary hated with a passion. caroling was the only thing they see eye to eye on. claire, lance’s older sister, would only look at them in a reprimanding way once they start to go off tune—she always take carols and entertaining their family seriously.)

It’s not Christmas. Oh no, according to the calendar it’d be few months before space Christmas, but Lance can’t quite help but think of Christmas. His older brother and older sister would come home from college, both tired but still energetic enough to talk about their majors (art for his brother and political science for his sister). It was funny and amazing to hear the both of them talk about college. He would laugh and laugh at Matthew’s eccentric professors and students and would be serious about Claire’s social activism. If he wasn’t so set on being a god damn pilot then perhaps he would also want to go to the college that his brother was going to (GO USTE!) and not Claire’s college. (though now that he was thinking about it, he was also regretting not going to maginhawa, the food trip street near UP, perhaps his older sister’s college also had some merits)

Though the fun part would be when all of them would come together and make instruments for their yearly caroling to fund their parol making shenanigans (his older brother, matthew, would always have the coolest parol—he was an art major of course. mary would have something in bright pink, claire would always have something that would always be related to her social activism and lance would have something related to being a pilot! his older brother would joke about claire being a ‘darn social activist ruining holidays’ while claire would roll her eyes and hang all of their parols).

Now that he’s in space and now he can’t quite help but start and hum one of his favorite caroling songs whenever he was alone or whenever he was training ([sino si santa claus? ‘yan ang tanung sa akin--](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7SwAno5tMM) _)_ to remember his siblings. It was dumb and it was something that doesn’t help his homesickness and can only further them more but he needs the practice too! What if they were to come home around Christmas? Lance now vows to never miss any future caroling when he gets back.

Wow, he’d never thought that he’d get sappy because of caroling. (he used to _despise_ it, despite getting more money out of it since he apparently had the ‘wonder’ voice among the mcclain siblings—he thinks of that as a lie as he listens to his older brother high and bright tenor, his older sister’s low but clear alto and his sister’s young and rough soprano. he was a tenor too, but compared to matthew’s tenor—it wasn’t good)

Despite joining the garrison fresh out of high school, he didn’t really miss his family that much since he _had_ the capability of calling them whenever he wanted and whenever he was free—in space he doesn’t have that luxury. He’d kill to hear his mother nagging him about eating right and laundry or his father singing an old song that Lance would no doubt hum around for the _whole week_ greatly annoying Hunk and Pidge.

* * *

(“ _[Ikaw na ba si Mister Right—](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IJVl5qVF6s)?_ ” Lance sings the line over and over again, making for one annoyed Pidge.

“God fucking damn it Lance!” Pidge would shout out. It wasn’t weird to hear the short boy to swear like a sailor, perhaps it would be even weirder to not hear him swear at one point during the day. “That’s the fourteenth time you sang that line? _Holy shit_ , please—please move on from that line.”

Lance’s eyes would sparkle and Hunk knows that sparkle anywhere and before he can even say about it he hears—

“I won’t move on, Pidge. Sorry but—“ Lance feigns fainting and his eyes are closed and his hands were thrown up in the air. “Hashtag Hugot*.”

“No one even fucking knows what hugot means Lance.” Pidge would groan out, his eyes twitching a bit and Hunk can’t quite feel bad for the guy.

Years of being around Lance’s antics pretty much desensitized him to things like this. He probably should calm Pidge down before he strangles Lance for not shutting the fuck up about Filipino ‘hugot’ songs.)

* * *

(“[ _May tatlong bibe_ —](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7fTtLFQ2NE)“

Across the garrison, you can hear Pidge’s screeching and Hunk’s frantic attempts to keep the short boy from killing Lance as he repeats singing the nursery song over and over and over and over and **over** again.)

* * *

Speaking of things that annoyed Pidge and Hunk, Lance knows that the both of them are _always_ annoyed whenever he speaks in Filipino. Partly because he sounds weird (his voice going a bit deeper whenever he talks in his native language) and partly because they don’t know what the _fuck_ he’s saying. For all they know he’s probably talking shit about them (well—they know lance won’t do that but _what if_ )

They also know that he’s given the two of them nicknames in his native language—but well they don’t _exactly_ know what those nickname means and Lance switches up the nicknames enough times that they always forget to look up the things he keeps telling them.

When they became paladins and part of the team however, Pidge and Hunk became _glad_ and ecstatic because _finally_ —they weren’t the only one who had to suffer through Lance’s (probably) shitty nicknames.

Even though he switches up the nicknames all the time (out of all of them perhaps Allura had the long end of the stick, being called “Munting Prinsesa” consistently. they could easily decipher that it alluded to the fact that Allura _was_ a Princess and a quick search meant that ‘munting’ meant little. she was also one of the few people who was rarely referred to with “gago” as that particular term was apparently reserved for the paladins), he always stuck with these—these ‘set’ nicknames for all of them.

Pidge became “Pilosopong Tacio” and Hunk became “Kapitan Tiago” during the garrison days. Shiro, within a span of few days, became the “Alperes” (lance actually complained about finding a nickname for shiro which told the paladins that he was taking them _somewhere_ ) and Keith—well, he’s a tricky one as he had quite a lot ‘set’ nicknames. Lance often called him “Simoun” whenever he was heated up and whenever the two got into a fight (simoun was often spitted out as if lance was saying _demonyo_ during nasty fights, though—usually after saying simoun, a guilty look would be upon the his face). “Ibarra” when they were in one of their “peace” hours. There was a symbolism to Lance’s words and nicknames and when they actually asked, he laughed and told them that it was one of his way to live vicariously and fulfil his dream of being Elias. It didn’t answer questions, but well, at least it gave a hint? (even though pidge tried to look for _anything_ that involved all names, after being hinted that the names came from a series, there was simply none.)

(well, at least being nicknamed after characters was better than being nicknamed “tito” like coran had. well, shiro could understand, being called “itay” often times by lance. though most, if not all of them have been called ‘gago’ by lance.)**

* * *

(“Itay. ‘Tay. Itay. Keith is making galit to me nanaman.” Lance once told Shiro, face pouting. It was after one of their pettier fights that Lance would often come to Shiro and tattle on Keith. “Please make tigil to him po.”

“ _Alright_ , didn’t understand a thing you told me but I understood the ‘itai’ and Keith parts and if it’s about Keith well—I’m not gonna be a part of it.” Shiro says, a bit confused but not so much. It wasn’t the first time the teen came to him for something like this. “Don’t understand why you’re saying you’re hurting but—well alright.”

“I—um.” Lance blinked, a bit horrified and a bit amused as he processed the last words of the other guy. “Was that a hugot?”

“What.”

“Never mind tatay.” Lance sighs. Shiro was an accidental hugotlord but—well you know, _alright_.)

* * *

(“Tito Cors!”

“I hope you know that ‘Tito Cors’—“Coran quoted and air signed,“—isn’t my real name.”

Lance just laughed. “Classic Tito Cors.”)

* * *

(“Munting Prinsesa! Maria Clara nang aking buhay!”

“Um. Is this normal on earth?” Allura glanced at the rest of the team which _vehemently_ shaked their heads. Pidge made a cross sign with their arms.

“Nope—nada—nay!” Pidge stuttered out. “ _I think it’s—_ I think it’s a Filipino thing for the most part.” They thought for a moment before adding; “Maybe a Lance thing?”)

* * *

(“Uy! Mga gagu!”

Four heads turned at the voice to see one Lance Mcclain. He laughed and the four paladins frowned annoyingly at Lance.

“Love these gagus.” He grinned before running the hell out of there before they realized that Lance succeeded making them react reflexively to the term ‘gago’ which he used affectionately—mind you! He won’t call some other people gago if he didn’t _like_ them. What was he? A fuckboy?)

* * *

Lance doesn’t like tooting his horn but he feels like he can make decent sweet spaghetti. He learned from the best after all! His mother made a mean sweet spaghetti that no fast food chain, _Jollibee or not_ can beat! Though, try as he may; his spaghetti can’t quite live up to his mom’s standards.

(“’Nay—Hindi-“ Lance frowned as he tasted the sauce simmering in the pot in front of him. The hotdogs were sliced a bit larger than what his mother did, but honestly it was only because Lance often was sad because the hotdogs were sliced super thin. “It’s not like _yours_.”

His mother laughed, “Of course it won’t be like mine! It’s _your_ cooking.” and before Lance can interpret that in the wrong way she added; “Everyone’s cooking _tastes_ different because everyone’s love is different!” His mother smiled at him, closing her eyes before tasting the sauce Lance made. Her eyes opened in surprise and her grin became wider. “This is good Lance! Maybe better than mine?” His mother’s eyes sparkled and Lance laughed. No spaghetti sauce would be better than his mother’s.)

Both Lance and Hunk was _glad_ and ecstatic when they landed on a planet that had ingredients more or less similar to the ingredients on earth. _Goodbye green goo_ , at least until after they leave the world, and _hello_ bright and green veggies, tender and savory meat, vibrant and tangy and tart fruits and _most of all_ stringy and slurpy pasta. (most of the paladin have been talking about earth foods the week before they landed on the planet, perhaps it was allura who got tired and veered off course just so that her paladins would _shut up_ about earth food.)

Lance had to _beg_ Hunk to at least be the first one to use the kitchen to make a different meal than their usual green goo. He also promised at least a week’s worth of not bothering him with (probably now) outdated Filipino memes that _no one even gets Lance, please stop torturing us this way_. (honestly, suntukan sa airlock*** was one of the best things lance ever thought of, but he really wanted to make spaghetti and fruit salad again. staple birthday foods and he missed them.)

(and when hunk finally relented and let lance cook the team’s first earth meal in months, well—lance most _definitely_ did not do a little dance)

 _Everyone_ was banned from the kitchen the whole day Lance was making their meal. It was weirdly reminiscent of his days back at home where everyone who won’t help was kicked out of the kitchen. Obviously not _everyone_ got the memo that everyone’s kicked out of the kitchen (coran and pidge finally stopped trying to sneak into the kitchen, lance knew that his mother’s recipe was heavenly but _jeez_ ) when Keith came a-snooping, smelling the sauce from the outside the kitchen. He came in a bit sweaty and shirtless and Lance’s nose scrunched automatically, Keith probably didn’t take a shower before coming here. ( _and no_ , lance most _definitely_ did not almost drop the bowl of fruit salad he was going to take to the fridge)

Instead of kicking out the guy, who probably was looking for food since he was done training, Lance decided to pity him and let him taste the sauce he made. It’s been so long since he last made spaghetti for people and he was worried it wasn’t up to par with standards.

“You cook?” was Keith’s first words to him when he wandered into the kitchen, making Lance roll his eyes at the disbelief laced in the other’s words. Keith caught it because he quickly continued, “I mean—no offence but-“

“I don’t seem like the type?” Lance interrupted before the other can say anything. “Well, us Mcclain kids were trained by the madre to cook. She told us that we had to take care of ourselves so we had to know how to cook. Though—out of all of us, I was the only one who took to cooking like a fish to the water.”

“Huh, what a surprise.” Keith murmured, his pot now trained on the big pot of sauce simmering under low heat. It wasn’t covered and so you can clearly see the big chunks of hot dog cut into it and other various vegetables Lance added. “That’s a lot.”

The blue pilot shrugged, “Boiled lot of pasta so made a lot of sauce.”  He took out a spoon from one of the drawers nearby and offered it to the other. “You wanna taste?”

Keith shrugged then plucked the spoon out of Lance’s hands. “Don’t mind if I do.” He mutters and dipped it in the pot and took out a tablespoon of the sauce. He blew on the spoon for at least a good minute before putting it in his mouth.

This was the moment of _truth_ , and Lance can’t help but be on the edge of his metaphorical seat to see what Keith had to say about his cooking and when Keith’s face brightened up after tasting the sauce, Lance can’t quite help but relax if only a little bit. It was always good to see other people’s face brighten up as it often reminded him of Claire after a long college year and would it just be lance when he thinks that Keith looks _cute_ with that look? (well, lance _kind of_ already knew the other was _kind_ of cute)

“It’s—it’s good.” Keith said, putting the spoon on the counter. “It’s really _really_ good. Holy shit.”

Lance grinned happily, conveniently not seeing the redness that was prevalent on the other’s face. “I’m glad that’s—that’s good to hear.” Lance sighed in relief, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “It was my _nanay_ ’s recipe you know? I—ayaw ko sirain ang pagluluto ng aking inay kung maari. Magaling—magaling siyang magluto.” Lance frowned, and he started fiddling with his thumbs as he remembered his mother left on earth.

“Um—Lance, you’re—you’re speaking in your native language.” Keith interrupts his trail of thought and for the first time ever, Lance was actually a bit glad he was interrupted before flushing red in realization he switched to his native language, only doing that when he’s comfortable as hell. It wasn’t as if it was the first time Lance did that, he couldn’t count how many times the paladins and co. looked at him weirdly during briefings before someone (usually Hunk or Shiro) told him he wasn’t speaking in English.

“I’m—I’m sorry. It happens.”

“It’s okay. It’s _more_ than okay actually.” Keith reassures him, “I know the feeling, I can’t count how many times I’ve automatically slipped into Japanese around Shiro. It must suck for you, seeing there’s no one to talk in your native language.”

“You can say that again.” Lance sighs, closing his eyes. He remembers hearing Keith and Shiro often talking in Japanese and he was _envious_ of that. It wasn’t because Keith had something that linked him with Shiro (most of the times), but rather it was because there was _no one else_ he can talk to in Filipino, which sucked and honestly at this point he was willing to take even the most of Manila’s array of fuckboys. (you can argue that lance was kind of a fuckboy but he was a fuckboy in an _ironic_ and _hugotlord_ way so it didn’t really count). Pidge and Hunk knew enough words to understand Lance most of the time but all the words they knew were _literal_ in a sense and thus talking to them in Filipino _felt_ weird. (but hunk had a better grasp on filipino as it shared a few similarities with spanish but pidge was somehow _awful_ at it despite filipino being one of the easiest language to learn)

“If—“ the other boy started and Lance can’t quite feel curious about the other’s next words. “If you want, then you can teach me? So—so you have someone else to talk to. Beside, I’m _really_ curious about the meaning of your nicknames.”

Lance opened both of his eyes in surprise and looked at Keith in an adoring and unbelieving way. “Would you—“ Lance takes a deep breath before continuing. “Would you really do that for me?”

Keith nervously laughed then shrugged. “Want to know about the things you keep muttering about and well— _you’re nicknames man_.”

Lance looked at him, not quite believing Keith and his life and _oh my god, diyos ko, anong klase—heto po ba ay totoong buhay?_ He laughed boisterously until there were tears in his eyes. He calms down soon enough, he calms down but his face still has a shit-eating grin that he can’t quite control (but would he _even_ want to?) “Thanks.” Lance says to Keith sincerely. “From the  bottom of my heart, _Salamat Ibarra._ ”

“There it is again!” Keith fake groaned, “What does Ibarra even mean?”

The both of them looked at each other for a few minutes before laughing out loud. It was a nice moment for the both of them and it was a _good_ bonding moment (lance would be lying if he said his heart did not skip a beat during the whole thing.)

Well, _was_ a good bonding moment until Pidge somehow got in the kitchen, claiming _injustice_.

* * *

(“You’re taking _too_ long Lance! You’re practically torturing us with the smell now!” Pidge told him, cutting in between Keith and Lance. “Please—just _finish_ the spaghetti. I am hurting _and_ dying here. My heart is literally breaking.”

Lance’s eyes sparkled before once again grinning wildly. He looked at Keith who only looked at him in confusion but Pidge saw that look and they know that look. Oh, they were _quite_ acquainted with that look, perhaps _too_ acquainted for Pidge’s liking.

“Don’t you fucking dar—“

“ _I didn’t know your heart was breaking Pidge._ You should _you know_ start and move on from the person you’re crushin’ on, some things aren’t meant to be.” Lance said cooly, his face having a shit-eating grin. “Hashtag Hugot!”

“ _I’m gonna fucking kill you—_ “

The spaghetti was done and was served at the end of the day but it still had some casualties. Like, you know, Lance. Keith tried his best to save the guy from Pidge, but hell hath no fury like a Pidge fed up with shitty hugot jokes.)

* * *

Teaching Keith how to speak in Lance’s native language proved to be a dauntless task. Well, if you were a native Japanese speaker perhaps it would be harder to learn western-based languages? It wasn’t all that bad actually, _except_ for the fact that Keith had a god awful accent and Lance can’t quite help but cringe every time he says something in his Filipino.

* * *

(“ _You’re saying makati wrong Keith_.” Lance says, crossed over laughing and crying. “You put the emphasis on _ma_ and not on the _ka_ because makati with emphasis on _ka_ is an _Old City_ that was in shambles because of this dude.”)

* * *

“I _finally_ figured out where you took the nicknames from.” Pidge suddenly announced at the dining table. “At least, the one you took from the _book_.”

“Oh?” Lance looks up from his food (thankfully hunk’s cooking), all of them were lowkey curious about where the pilot got his really weird ass nicknames. “Pray do tell, _where_?”

Pidge shoved their data pad into Lance’s face and the other pilot began reading. The two of them clearly wanted this conversation to be private but judging from Pidge’s eyebags forgot to take into consideration that there would be people in the mess hall. Slowly but surely, Lance began to smile as he read what was on the bright screen of the data pad.

“Takes me back to third year of high school.” Lance sighs in nostalgia, “How’d you figure out?”

Pidge looked at him in a sort of ‘I can figure out _anything_ ’ way and tilted their chin up a little. “You held onto your copy for the first year of the garrison. I’ve—I’ve only just remembered now.” She then frowned and grumbled a little, “It was near impossible to find an English copy of it so I had to make do and use the Filipino I’ve learned from you to read the whole thing.”

Lance looks at them in a surprised and bewildered fashion then begins to laugh out loud. Deep and low, but quite jolly and happy at the same time. “ _Pilosopong Tacio indeed!_ ”

Pidge bristled at the words of the other but there was a small splash of red on their cheeks in satisfaction. “If you would excuse me, I’ll now be going to sleep.” They left the room in a calm but quick fashion but everyone can see the slight wobble in their step due to the sleep deprivation.

Everyone goes back to eating their meal, slightly disappointed that they never really do find out where Lance takes his shitty nicknames from but well—except for Keith. He watches as the other continues to look at the data pad with such fond and nostalgic eyes that he can’t help but feel as if he’s intruding on a very special memory.

He hears Lance’s whispered words and etches the title of the book to his head, _determined_ to find out who Ibarra is. He etches it into his mind and leaves the mess hall a bit giddy.

(“ _noli me tangere_ _by jose rizal_ ” lance murmurs to himself, knowing fully well that keith was listening to him. “ _tangina naman, o_.”)****

* * *

“Oh, it’s not on my account, not on my account!” exclaimed Elias with some vigor and haughtiness. “It’s on your own account. I fear nothing from men.”

Ibarra’s surprise increased. The tone in which this rustics—formerly a pilot—spoke was new and did not seem to harmonize with either his condition or his fortune. “What do you mean?” he asked, interrogating that mysterious individual with his looks.

“I do not talk in enigmas but try to express myself clearly; for your greater security, it is better that your enemies think you unsuspecting and unprepared.”[*****](http://www.kapitbisig.com/philippines/noli-me-tangere-the-social-cancer-by-dr-jose-rizal-a-complete-english-version-chapter-33-free-thought-english-version-of-noli-me-tangere_754.html)

* * *

* * *


	2. o giliw ko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love opm. HUSH, OKAY classic opm songs will live on forever dw.
> 
> [tumblr](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7427716/chapters/17755642)  
> ALSO, shameless plug but if u a filipino voltron fan and want to meet other filipino vld fans there's now a facebook group! [clicky here!](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1625729827740977/)  
> 

It starts like this.

* * *

 

It starts with a whistle from Lance as they get back from a mission. A tiny whistle that was slow, yet a bit catchy. No one thought any different of it—why would they? All of them had different after mission rituals.

Pidge would often just— _you know_ , talking to their robot, trying to calm their nerves after a day of fighting. They were good fighters, but they also easily got distracted and nervous. Hunk would often be found either stress baking or tinkering with something in the ship. He needed to stim and calm himself so he’d often do that. Shiro and Keith would be sparring and just try and cool down, trying to train themselves to the fullest so they won’t make any (minor) mistakes they made in the battlefield, and Lance?

Well, Lance would whistle all the way from the cockpit to his room, walking at such a slow pace.

It wasn’t anything destructive, so no one really did mind it. The tunes he whistled were often catchy too, and it seemed something that really did calm Lance down, even after a spectacularly bad mission so the paladins never really minded it.

So there was nothing strange about Lance humming after a mission.

Well, that is if you did not count what happened _during_ the main room.

It had been a normal post-mission briefing.  Allura was congratulating them for a good job and sent them out to do whatever the paladins did after a mission. They were walking out of the castle’s main room, the only noise would be Lance’s humming. It happened so fast, that Keith did not even know how to react.

All of a sudden, Lance jumped and held Keith’s hands, facing him and their hands in front of them as the blue paladin’s eyes closed. Surprising most, if not all, paladins as he did so, Pidge was the only one unamused. Keith was a bit flustered as the other paladin held his hand and was about to say something about it but Lance decided to beat him to it.

By singing a song.

“ _[Magkahawak ang ating kamay, at walang kamalay-malay,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajnSJZpI34)_ ” Lance sang, his voice a bit high but it was still bright and had this certain charm to it. It was a bit rough but that, too, only gave more depth to the paladin’s voice. “ _[Na tinuruan mo ang puso ko na umi—big ng tu—nay!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajnSJZpI34)”_ Lance then quickly let go of Keith’s hand, his eyes was still closed, and proceeded to skip to his room still singing. (” _[La la la la—! La la—a la la la la—!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajnSJZpI34)_ ”)

Well, the whole thing left a really flustered Keith, possibly in love with a voice, and a whole bunch of paladins armed with new teasing material for _months_ to come.

* * *

 

The second time they hear Lance sing would be until after they find a guitar.

It would seem that the universal instrument wasn’t really only in Earth but in some other worlds too. This revelation lead to Lance wasting a bunch of space money (well, that world’s currency wasn’t called space money but the paladins didn’t really bother to learn new currency for all new worlds they visit so they stick with space money often times) and buying himself a tan acoustic guitar.

( _“I can play the guitar!” Lance frowned as he hugged his guitar protectively. The owner of this alien music shop did not pay them any mind. “Where do you think I went to high school?I’m a Filipino kid through and through! Of course I know how to play the guitar!” He then rolled his eyes as he paid for it. “Just watch, when we get back to the ship!_ ” _)_

So there he was, in the castle’s main room (again), tuning the guitar while most of the paladins watched even Allura watched! When asked later, she said she simply wanted to see if Lance could really play the guitar but everyone knew that she, like most of them, wanted to hear Lance sing again. His singing was really a bit rare around the castle, despite popular opinion.

It was a bit hypnotizing, in a really weird way, to see Lance tune the guitar. His tongue was stuck out as he strummed the strings of the guitar. He frowned whenever he heard something _wrong_ and then quickly fixed it by moving the pegs of the guitar.

Lance smiled widely as he finished tuning the guitar. “Voila!” He exclaimed as he strummed experimentally. He then turned to the audience he gathered and readied his first chord and readied himself to strum.

“ _[Ikaw na ba si Mister Right?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IJVl5qVF6s)”_ Lance sang as he horribly strummed the guitar. Pidge was screaming, this was never supposed to happen. The blue paladin then laughed and stopped strumming. “I’m kidding! I don’t even know the chords of that song.” He laughed again before strumming.

“ _[Anong pipiliin mo?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es5HlkvPuaU)_ ” Lance sang and now it was Hunk’s turn to scream. “ _[Dota o a](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es5HlkvPuaU)—_ Wow I never really knew you hated that song Hunk.”

“I was subjected to that song twenty four hours a day back in the garrison, do you really think I won’t hate it?” Hunk shivered, “It was like torture.”

“Huh, tough crowd.” Lance shrugged, and started to strum once more.

He cleared his throat before starting—“[Kamukha mo si—Paraluman. Noong tayo ay bata pa.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajnSJZpI34)” Though even before he can even get to the familiar part he suddenly stopped, putting his whole palm to stop the vibration of the string and frowning.

“Huh,” He said, frowning. “It seems that I have momentarily forgotten those chords which is— _weird_. It’s weird.” He shrugged. “Oh well, I know the next songs chords wouldn’t be something I would forget. Dedicated to you Keith babe.” Lance winked at him and Keith could swear he was perhaps a tomato. “Sagutin mo na ako please lang, de joke, di pa nga ako nangliligaw eh.”

Hunk just sighs and Pidge just laughs. Keith kind of regret not making any _serious_ progress with him learning Filipino.

He cleared his throat and once more starts to strum. A fast and light melody which sounded nice to groove around and Shiro was already starting to tap his foot to the beat.

“ _[Ilang awit pa ba ang aawitin ko, o giliw ko?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkPUJRrB3L8)_ ” Lance sang, carefree and happy and _so full of energy_ , while he was looking at Keith. He winked again and the red paladin turning red once more. “ _[Ilang ulit pa ba ang uulitin, o giliw ko?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkPUJRrB3L8)_ ”

 _Oh god_. This was going to be the longest minutes of Keith’s life, but strangely he doesn’t find it that bad. Lance’s voice was light and _really_ good.

Keith might just be in love once again.

**Author's Note:**

> * - hugot - What you said is the literal meaning of hugot. But "hugot" in the current slang comes from "malalim ang pinaghugutan" which literally means "drawn from a deep place" and figuratively means "deeply emotional", never playing cards or the like. parent. (god bless reddit for explaining this.. it's honestly hard to explain)  
> ** - ref to the fact that most fili youths call their friends gago as an affectionate nickname lmao (gago is a swear word actually)  
> *** - OH MAN THIS IS FUNNY ACTUALLY, there was a meme where people would just make events using the format [really shocking event like fighting] at [popular store]. it started as suntukan (fist fight) at ace hardware and evolved from that  
> **** - NOLI ME TANGERE,,, a popular novel that all third yr high school students are required to read. we were forced but we grew to love it dw. tangina is also a swear word... the closest that would have would be maybe ? son of a bitch? im not sure  
> ***** - this! is! from chapter 33 of noli me tangere!! featuring elias (lance) and ibarra (keith) ! honestly....... elias is a cool character so id really see lance want to be like elias?? also........ elibarra is a popular pairing so make of that as u will!! [this is where i took this translation from!](http://www.kapitbisig.com/philippines/noli-me-tangere-the-social-cancer-by-dr-jose-rizal-a-complete-english-version-chapter-33-free-thought-english-version-of-noli-me-tangere_754.html)  
> 


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